ArmdandFabulous’s BodyBlog

…well everything I have worked this week still hurts…but I hadn’t worked the hams too much so I decided to go after them today…

stiff legged dl’s 5×10 #25 db’s, #30, #35, #30×2

ham curls  4×10

lying ham curl machine 5×10

another lying ham curl 3×10

ham flexor machine 4×10

3 mile run on treadmill

…well everything I have worked this week still hurts…but I hadn’t worked the hams too much so I decided to go after them today…

stiff legged dl’s 5×10 #25 db’s, #30, #35, #30×2

ham curls  4×10

lying ham curl machine 5×10

another lying ham curl 3×10

ham flexor machine 4×10

3 mile run on treadmill

…pretty much every muscle I have worked in the past 48 hours was sore today, which is of course, awesome! ANd I could see a little progress in my arms too from going a little heavier yesterday, already…it’s amazing how fast results can come with weightlifting sometimes

…every morning when I wake up I have to check out my arms to see if there is any change…it’s bordering on obsessing…but I am happy with their progress, so it’s a good obsession as far as I’m concerned…I have been looking at other women’s arms when I see one wearing something sleeveless, and I always feel grateful that I have put in the time, effort and dedication it takes to get mine shaped up…especially when it is heating up over here…and we are already into "sleeveless" season…today it was 85 degrees, but felt like 95…I have made progress in transforming my entire body, but the part I most wanted to see change has, which is my arms–they look so different now than they did last March…I used to be very self-conscious about them, back then I would NEVER go sleeveless, I always USED to hate how my arms looked…but the work I have put into them is really showing up, and sometimes when I catch a glimpse of them in a mirror, I can’t believe they are really MY ARMS!…and I’m not even done with them yet!!! …

well my glutes and quads are definitely feelin it today after yesterday’s assault on them…yay!

assisted pullups/chinups 5×10 I was able to do them with less "assist" than last week..and I upped it to 5 sets..woot

single arm rows 4×10..#35, #40 (PB!)x2, #35

lat pulldown…4×10 #70, #90, #110, #90

bent over rows.. 3×10 #50lb bb

bb bicep curls 4×10 #35, #40×2 (another PB!)#35..really squeeeeezed them at the top of the lift…

I will be going back to do cardio here pretty soon, I decided to break up the weightlifting from cardio sessions and spread them apart, I read that it is better for the muscle not to do cardio right after…

..ok I went back to the gym and did 30 mins stairmaster, 30 mins precor and 30 mins walk on treadmill…I didn’t want to do any high intensity stuff since my legs were still sore, so I took it easy…also wanted to work the biceps more since I saved them for last in my earlier workout, I really didn’t do much for them..

bicep curls 4×8, bicep curls #40, #35×3

single db curls 4×8 #20×2, #15×2

wide grip lat pulldowns 4×10, 8, 6  #80, #90, #100, #90

seated rows 5×10, 8, 6 #70, #80, #90, #100, #90..when I was doing these my eyes happened to land on a guy using a chest machine that was across from me…he was going heavy and made a funny face, struggling with the weight just as I looked his way…I looked away and kinda started to laugh to myself, that face he made was funny…I tried to hold it in, but the harder I tried to hold it in, the more it kept coming out…I tried to focus and just do my sets, but the image was burned into my brain, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and turned my head but started full on laughing…it got away from me…kinda embarrassing, sitting at a seated row machine, laughing by myself at something that no one else has any idea about…lol…I hoped the guy didn’t know I was laughing at the face he was making…when I looked back that way he was he was gone so I don’t know…but that s**t was funny!

…this is what I was saying in my head today during my leg workout as I had an a-ha! moment in regards to why my glutes and quads seem to be laughing at my efforts to make something out of them…I haven’t been pushing myself hard enough on leg day…my arms/shoulders are gradually coming along and I am happy with their progress, but my legs…when will I ever see a hint of a change I have been patiently waiting for?…and the ironic thing is that before I started weight lifting, I imagined that my arms would be what takes me the longest to shape up, since I have pretty much been running as my form of cardio for forever, so I thought I had a good starting point in them already, and they would just take shape much quicker than they have…I even upped my legs to two days a week, thinking that I work my arms two days a week, so maybe that’s why my legs are slower to develop, I was trying to "save" them from being too sore so I could still do my 5 days a week cardio, and was only working them one time a week before…but today I went into the gym and tried a completely different approach…

normally I do squats on the smith machine on leg days, among other exercises, and each week I have been increasing the weight that I lift, and the # of sets I do has gone too…and I THOUGHT I was working hard enough to have an effect, but honestly I wasn’t getting my quads or glutes really really sore the way everyone talks about, how they almost have to "crawl" out of the gym on their leg days, and even driving is a bit painful after some of their leg workouts…I have never gotten my legs THAT shredded…so today I decided to FOCUS my attention on just quads, glutes and calves…

I started with the single leg extension machine, and then went into the "meat" of my workout, stationary lunges/walking lunges and squats with weight plates…I alternated between holding 25lb plates and 35 lb plates, and at then end of my sets of lunges and squats, I would stay stationary and just "pulse" my quads quickly for a set of 15 to get them really burning…after a couple rounds of that, I was sweating as if I had been doing cardio…and I don’t normally sweat that much when just working legs…(I know, I know, if I wasn’t sweating so much, I obviously wasn’t working all that hard, right?)…well, I have been tiring them out in my leg workouts, and since I have been increasing in weight each week, I figured that was good enough…until today…man, I didn’t even keep track of how many sets I did of lunges, squats, etc…I just kept doing them and it BURNED…I started sweating even more…and then…I sweated MORE…I almost passed out, lost my breath a couple times, and at a couple ends of walking lunge sets, I almost teetered over…I sweated so much I looked like I had just run 4 miles…wow, was that an eye opener to me and my need to step up my leg days a notch!

30 mins stairmaster, 30 mins walk on treadmill…I was supposed to do another cardio session today, but felt like my diet was right on, so I talked myself out of it…and then caved and ate lemon pudding!!…and then some Kashi Go Lean cereal…(all after I had eaten all my meals for the day already) grrrrr…oh well, at least it wasn’t cake and ice cream right?!…I am soooo glad I didn’t have any real bad cheat foods available to me, don’t know what damage I would have done…anyways, I won’t be skippin my second cardio session next time…this is the first time I have done that…

Sh/Ch/Tri’s are all still sore from my Saturday workout, and hamstrings are still sore from last leg workout…think I will work quads/calves tomorrow…and more cardiooooooooooo of course!

..so I was at the gym working Sh/Ch/Tri’s today and I met a man who said back a few years ago he used to compete at 1.35% body fat..whoa, I don’t know if I buy that or not, does anyone know if that is even possible?

AM: 

incline flyes  4×10 #15, #20×3

lying chest press 4×10 #20, #25×3

decline chest press 4×10 #25×2, #20×2

lateral raises 4×10 #15

seated shoulder presses 4×10 #15, #20, #25, #20

single cable crossovers 4×10 #25, #30×2, #35

cable tricep exercise 4×10 #50, #55, #60×2

assisted dips machine 4×10 (first time doing these…one day I will graduate to dips all by myself..lol)

leaning laterals 3×10 #8..feel like a weakling doing these, they really burn at the end of the workout!

…In the short time I have been using whey, I have tried a few…the first was the one Walmart sells, it’s made by Body Fortress, called "Super Advanced Whey"..well, that was my first experience with it and I really didn’t expect it to taste good…and I was right…I tried vanilla and cookies and cream flavors…with both I had to plug my nose to not be grossed out by their flavor for a while..the vanilla wasn’t as bad as the cookies and cream though, that one tastes the way suntan lotion smells! lol….kinda sweet, kinda coconut-ey, but not at all like cookies or cream…bleck!…the next one I tried was a soy protein I got at a health food store…is was also vanilla flavor, but should have been called "chalk" flavor…so nasty….then I ran out of protein and bought a couple single scoop packets of another whey one night at a grocery store, called "Jay Robb" Egg White Protein…on the package it says "Outrageously Delicious"…and it came with an "outrageously expensive" price…I had high hopes that finally I had found a good tasting whey…nope, still gross, and now thinking they "outrageously" lie to consumers…so finally after asking a fellow Bodyspacer’s advice, I was pointed in the direction of "Dymatize Elite Whey"…I bought it here on BB.com and it was the best I had tasted, I tried the "orange creamsicle" flavor…but then after reading someone’s blog about how they had just bought GOLD STANDARD 100% WHEY, I was intrigued and looked into that one…I saw you could order a 16 flavor variety package of it to try them all out before comitting to one flavor…that was an awesome idea to me!…so I ordered it, and so far I can honestly say, WOW!..every flavor I have tried really IS good, and has the most flavor of any other whey I have tried…I love the variety of it, and I might just keep ordering the variety pack…I still can’t believe that it actually tastes good! I never thought I’d really think any whey tasted good!…it is the most expensive, but it is worth it…and flavor aside, it is made up of the purest form of whey that exists–whey protein isolates…which our muscles think is awesome too!

No way am I gonna let this guy look better than me in a pair of shorts!!! 

 AM:  

squats 6×10 #85, #95, 2x#105, 2x#115…wow superpump was really kickin in, I normally only do around 4 sets!

single hamstring curls 3×15 #50

stiff legged deadlifts 4×10 #50, #55×3

squat machine  2×20 (no weights)

also did a bunch of cable leg exercises, trying to target glutes/hamms

PM: cardio, 30 mins stationary step machine, 15mins stepmill (stairmaster)